UNLEASHED UTOPIAS - Exhibition of the VR ART PRIZE by DKB in Cooperation with CAA Berlin

UNLEASHED UTOPIAS. Artistic Speculations about Today and Tomorrow in the Metaverse

Marlene Bart, Theatrum Radix, 2022

Rebecca Merlic, Glitchbodies, 2022-ongoing

Mohsen Hazrati, FÃL PROJECT [NONE-AI], 2023

Lauren Moffatt, Local Binaries, 2022/23

Anan Fries, Posthuman Wombs, 2022

Opening: September 8, 2023, 7 pm

Award Ceremony: September 15, 2023, 7 pm

At: Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin

Artists: Marlene Bart, Anan Fries, Mohsen Hazrati, Rebecca Merlic, Lauren Moffatt

Curator: Dr. Tina Sauerlaender

The notion of a better world is closely tied to utopia as a theme. The term literally describes a wonderful place that does not exist. It means that the design for an ideal society is a criticism of the current situation. Utopias are based on questions such as: What happens if we change a couple of rules? How can we live well together? Thus, utopias also inherently have great potential for societal change and visions for a better future.

In this exhibition, the grant winners of the VR ART PRIZE of the DKB in Cooperation with CAA Berlin show how we might be able to deploy new technologies for a more just, multifaceted, and personal coexistence. They are alert to the changes in values and norms currently going on in society and link their speculations to topical debates. With the help of virtual reality and site-specific installations, the artists create accessible, immersive, experiential utopias. They critically speculate upon artificial intelligence, 3D scanning, animation techniques, research in scientific fields, or the metaverse.

Marlene Bart works with digitized natural history artifacts, bringing them to life in virtual worlds and producing a new perspective of our concept of nature. Anan Fries renounces the division between nature and technology to overcome the boundaries between biological genders, creating a world in which all bodies could be pregnant. Rebecca Merlic celebrates the liberation of binary identities, physical transformation, and the diversity of human individuality. Mohsen Hazrati combines figures from Iranian myths and soothsaying traditions with forms of artificial intelligence, altered by the artist to provide us with cryptic advice for our futures. Lauren Moffatt looks at the interior human, gathering data from it via artificial intelligence and combining it with painting to create a multilayered, intimate landscape.

The artists’ unleashed utopias rattle not only societal norms but also the purely profit-oriented use of new technologies. With their radical speculations, they open up new perspectives of our lives, our coexistence. Through their visions, they reinforce the values such as openness, diversity, and tolerance that should characterize our society now and in the future. And it is precisely in that where utopia lies.

The exhibition UNLEASHED UTOPIAS. Artistic Speculations about Today and Tomorrow in the Metaverse, produced by the VR ART PRIZE of the DKB in Cooperation with CAA Berlin, will be on display from September 9 through November 5, 2023, at the Haus am Lützowplatz. 

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SEED SYSTEMS - Speculative Ecologies in XR Art Today

SEED SYSTEMS

Speculative Ecologies in XR Art Today

Initiated by STYLY

Curated by Miriam Arbus (Sky Fine Foods) and Peggy Schoenegge (peer to space)

Artists: Alison Bennett (AUS) | Nicholas Delap (UK) | Matthew D. Gantt (US) | Mohsen Hazrati (IRN/DE) | Nadine Kolodziey (DE) | Lauren Moffatt (AUS/DE)

In cooperation with SOMA Berlin and Radiance

At: SOMA 300 Berlin, Eylauer Strasse 9, 10965 Berlin (DE) and online via STYLY

Duration: September 10 - 30, 2022

Opening: September 9, 2022, 6 - 10 pm

Closing event: September 30, 2022, 12-6 pm

Accompanying Event Schedule tba on Instagram >>> Follow @stylyglobal @peertospace @skyfinefoods @radiance_vr

In the age of the extractivist Anthropocene, nature is dominated by human impact. We built capitalistic structures by extracting and selling natural resources for our own benefit. The dramatic increase in CO2 emissions since the Industrial Revolution and the devastating effects of human activities on the global environment have profoundly changed the Earth system. Escalating climate disasters like wildfires, floodings or frost call for a change in overall behavior. The resulting environmental precarity underlines the need for new, innovative visions for the future. 

Following the idea of neo-ecologies, virtual technologies provoke new states of being, illustrating concepts for our future. Reformulating approaches to environmental questions, interactive Expanded Realities (XR) immerse us into speculative ecosystems. Divergent futures emerge as a digital garden, where growth is as inevitable as decay. The tensions of human impact are deeply rooted within the exploration of possibilities. In this discourse, humans’ inevitable depletion of resources is the critical object of consideration. 

Grappling with these topics, the XR art exhibition Seed Systems emerges as a collaborative cultivation emerges as. Six international artists use augmented and virtual realities to explore speculative approaches to future human-nature relationships, forming a spatial and sonic occurrence of growth and foliage. They unite their expertise in virtual world-building and plant knowledge, shaping alternative ecologies and biologies. The artworks create networks and systems of seeds as future concepts for environments. Activated in XR through computer-generated images (CGI), animation, point clouds and interactions, the digital biosphere – nourished by visions – grows as a space for meeting and reflection. In this speculative approach, new possibilities for action, care-taking, and reciprocity flourish, visualizing a necessary change in perspective.

 Alison Bennett considers Australian native flowers as celestial encounters by exploring vegetal thinking, digital gardening and post-human neuroqueer phenomenology through today’s possibilities of expanded photography. Nicholas Delap examines histories of folklore and the nettle plant – a mysterious and overlooked plant whose medicinal qualities make it one of the most potent and widely available healing tools. Matthew D. Gantt interconnects responsive sound elements with the visual, engaging with Brian Eno’s notion of generative electronic music as bottom-up gardening – emergent structures flourish with no predicated finale. Mohsen Hazrati creates a virtual bioluminescence with a metaphorical approach to understanding wine as an alternative source of energy, which he considers in the context of Irianian culture. Nadine Kolodziey explores how to plant something digital and intangible in a physical space, while playfully questioning future interactions within our technologized environment. Lauren Moffatt establishes cycles of flourishing and decay in nature, examining how different virtual and physical ecosystems become linked by human movement and behavior.

Inspired by gardens that carefully construct spaces of experience and interaction, the exhibition considers how new media can be used to reimagine ecological systems and facilitate mindful, inclusive futures. Planting seeds of reflection and growth raises the question of what we can do at a small scale to initiate patterns for the greater system. Should this practice be considered rebellious, productive or promising? Can this artistic activism really contribute to a positive development of our planet’s ecology? How can the influence of humankind change for the better? 

Peggy Schoenegge participates in the XRcon

NextReality Hamburg connects virtual and real worlds, shares knowledge about XR and meet professionals as well as enthusiasts! In November 2021 they present the very first nextReality.Conference, the XRcon.

Talk by Peggy Schoenegge: November 12, 2021, 1:45 pm CET

Experience insightful talks, key sessions and panel discussions. XRcon covers the topics of virtual and augmented reality from the academic and tech world to the business world with relevant use cases. peer to space’s senior curator and project manager Peggy Schoenegge will give a talk on virtual art exhibitions.

The XRcon will take place completely online on the platform Bizzlogic.

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peer to space’s curator Peggy Schoenegge at Golem-Labor Conference

peer to space’s curator Peggy Schoenegge will hold a keynote on Performing Arts in XR at Golem-Labor Conference.  

In the online conference, artists and XR experts will share their experiences, artistic projects and open dialogue on the intersection of art and immersive technologies. They will address questions on the intersection of the (performing) arts and (XR) technologies. How does the interaction of performing arts and technology impact the audience? How can the body and its physicality be experienced in VR? What are the limitations when working with Motion Capture technologies or Volumetric recording? And can the technology be more than just a tool?

The online conference is organized by gamelab.berlin and Goethe-Institut Prag. 

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Tina Sauerlaender at AAMC panel on Reimagining Art in Virtual Realms

Reimagining art in Virtual Realms

A discussion on digital advancement and ways virtual realms can be used to reimagine exhibitions and social experiences.

> Watch panel here

As art organizations work towards becoming more digitally advanced many are turning to virtual, augmented, and extended reality to leverage technology engaging audiences. This webinar brings both international curators and artists into dialogue to discuss ways virtual realms can be used to reimagine exhibitions and social experiences, as well as reconsider the role of the spectator. Panelists will also address issues of collecting, conserving, and DEAI within the context of VR, AR, and XR.

Speakers:

Michael Kam Barngrover, XR Researcher / Developer, Koç University KARMA Lab

Alfredo Salazar-Caro, Creative Director / Artist, Digital Museum of Digital Art (DiMoDA)

Tina Sauerlaender, Director & Head Curator, peer to space

Tamiko Thiel, artist

Julie Walsh, Independent Curator of Digital Art, Walsh Projects; Moderator

Watch panel here

Tina Sauerlaender speaks at Linoleum Festival about VR & Arts

September 3, 2020, 3 pm CET

For some years Virtual Reality has been making its way into artistic practice. Artists from all fields, including painting, sculpture and performance art, discover the medium for their work. The virtual space allows artists to work surrounded by a blank space where physical laws do not apply. In her talk, Berlin-based curator Tina Sauerlaender introduces the history of immersion, the development of the medium of virtual reality and its application in the field of visuals arts. She will speak about her experience as an international VR art curator, introduce her projects and Radiance VR, an international platform for artistic VR experiences that she co-founded.

Talk funded by the Goethe Institut in Kyiv.

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Tina Sauerlaender appointed Artistic Director of VR ART PRIZE

Tina Sauerlaender, Photo by J. Pegman, 2020

Peer to space’s Co-Founder, Director and Head Curator was appointed Artistic Director of the VR ART PRIZE by DKB in Cooperation with CAA Berlin. The VR ART PRIZE  is the first art prize for virtual reality in the field of visual arts with an institutional exhibition in Germany and aims to contribute to the structural establishment of this emerging medium in art. The prize focuses on exploring the artistic potential of new technologies, seeking to explore and critically reflect on how they impact on individuals and society. The prize aims to contribute to the structural establishment of this emerging medium in art.

The Open Call for VR artists is open until June 30, 2020.

vrkunst.dkb.de

Laval Virtual Conference - Panel on Digital and Virtual Art Exhibitions IRL and the Virtual World

Panel at Laval Virtual Conference:
Digital and Virtual Art Exhibitions IRL and the Virtual World

April 23, 2020 at 4-6 pm Berlin time / 10 am -12 pm New York time
At: Laval Virtual Conference (at Laval Virtual World)

Short Talks by
Michael Connor (Artistic Director, rhizome.org)
Christiane Paul (Adjunct Curator of Digital Art | Director/Chief Curator Whitney Museum | Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, The New School)
Alfredo Salazar-Caro (Co-founder DiMoDA)
Tina Sauerlaender (Co-founder peer to space and Radiance VR)
Panel Discussion moderated by
Julie Walsh (Founder Walsh Projects)

How to join the conference?
The participation is for free.
Register for the conference
Download and install the Laval Virtual World (you can use it on your desktop)
Login and explore the world.
Read guidelines how to attend the conferences
The full schedule of the events can be found here.

Exhibition on Virtual Reality at HeK Basel

The Unframed World
Virtual Reality As Artistic Medium For The 21st Century

Alfredo Salazar-Caro, Portrait of Elizabeth Mputu, 3D scanned data, custom software, 2016

Artists: Li Alin (CAN/DE), Banz & Bowinkel (DE), Fragment.In (CH), Martha Hipley (US), Rindon Johnson (US), Marc Lee (CH), Mélodie Mousset & Naëm Baron (FR/CH), Rachel Rossin (US), Alfredo Salazar-Caro (US)

Curated by: Tina Sauerländer (peer to space)

Opening: 18.01.2017 at 6 pm with an artist talk and a performance by Li Alin

Rindon Johnson, “Photographed Still from Meet in the Corner (Publishing House, 2016)”

Duration: 19.01.2017 - 05.03.2017

At: HeK - House of Electronic Arts Basel, Freilager-Platz 9, 4142 Münchenstein/Basel, Switzerland

(c) Li Alin

With the market launch of technologies suitable for the masses, Virtual Reality experiences a first time large-scale popularity as artistic medium. By means of a headset, the viewer enters a three-dimensional world devoid of the limiting edges of a screen, projection sheet or room. The Unframed World is the first extensive presentation of artistic exploration of the VR medium at the HeK (House of Electronic Arts Basel). The international group exhibit shows works, which bind the virtual environment together with the physical exhibition space.

More Information here.